A writer talks about writing and everything else.

Are you a Synesthete?

A friend of mine, Gay Ingram, was the speaker at Friday night’s meeting of the East Texas Writer’s Association. Her subject included Creativity, Writer’s Block, and Imagination. She invited us to choose square of colored paper and write down what that particular color brought to mind. This lead to a discussion about color, during which another friend asked “Do any of you know what Synesthesia is?” I immediately raised my hand, saying, “Yes, I do, because I have it.”

It turns out that she and I have the same type of Synesthesia, and upon researching this just now I read that our type is called “Grapheme-Color Synesthesia”–we see letters and numbers as colors. Not that we see them on the page–newspapers and books are still printed in black on white–but in our “mind’s eye” we sort of sense the colors. And they never change.

I remember mentioning this to my mother when I was about ten years old. I think I started the conversation by asking her if she saw my name, Vivra, as dark red as I did. She laughed at me, but started asking me what color other names were–the days of the week, for instance, and I named them in color. I told her, and was surprised that she apparently did not see the colors–any colors–connected to words.

A couple of months later, she asked me “What color is Monday?” I said ice-blue; she asked me the other days, and I told her. She asked again several months later–my answers were always the same, which both amused and amazed her.

I grew up thinking she was the odd one, because I was “normal” right? It was something I thought nothing of, so never did discuss it with anybody. Until a friend of mine mentioned that she hated classical music because the colors of music were so brilliant it gave her headaches. It was then I mentioned that it was words and letters that I saw in color. And it was she who told me the name of the condition–Synesthesia.

I’ve just looked it up online–apparently only about 1 person in 2,000 have the condition, which can show up in many different ways besides color in letters. Color in music, sight-and-taste, for instance. It appears in a higher percentage of females than males; sufferers of Synesthesia are usually extremely artistic/creative, intelligent, and tend to experience severe migraines (which I used to–a lot–and a migraine headache is something I would not wish on my worst enemy.)

Lynn, my Synesthesia twin from ETWA, and I shared alphabet colors and discovered that her colors are quite different than mine. I am going to paint the alphabet in my colors, so we can compare.

I also see colors in music–but in a more pleasing way than my long-ago friend who could not stand to listen to classical music. I see the music in colored waves, the music of stringed instruments–various shades of red, depending on the type; reeds–anything from silver-grey to green; wind instruments produce bright yellows, and piano music is white-to-light blue.

There is some question among researchers that suggest a possible connection to mild autism. That interests me, because I suffer from Aspbergers Syndrome–I have “face blindness”, no sense of direction, cringe at close contact with people (hugs and such), all of which are symptoms of Aspbergers, which in itself is a very mild form of autism.

Thanks for commenting, Gay–Synesthesia, as far as I’m concerned, is neither a hindrance nor a blessing! It’s just something , to me, like having blue eyes or brown eyes–simply a part of me. I will probably talk more about this on my Blog, iamvivra.blogspot.com

I really enjoyed this. My dad once associated a color with taste, so I have been aware of some doing this. I didn’t know of the condition and don’t think he had it. It was just his way of expressing himself. Thanks for sharing.